Solutions
SWIFT for Corporates
Bank Readiness Programme
Version 4.0
This document describes the operational and commercial criteria a bank needs to meet in order to become
certified for corporate access as well as the application process.
July 2015
Table of Contents
2.
3.
1.1
Purpose of the document ....................................................................................................... 2
1.2
Main principles........................................................................................................................ 2
1.3
Entry Readiness Certification .................................................................................................. 3
1.4
Advanced Readiness Certification........................................................................................... 3
Mandatory operational criteria ...................................................................................................... 4
2.1
Context: SCORE ....................................................................................................................... 4
2.2
Messaging ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.3
Testing capabilities.................................................................................................................. 5
2.4
Documentation ....................................................................................................................... 6
2.5
Implementation support ......................................................................................................... 6
Mandatory commercial criteria ...................................................................................................... 6
3.1
Sales staff ................................................................................................................................ 6
3.2
Commercial documentation ................................................................................................... 6
4.1
Correctly support MT 300 – Foreign Exchange Confirmation................................................. 7
4.2
Correctly support MT 320 – Fixed Loan/Deposit Confirmation .............................................. 7
4.3
Correctly support MT 210 – Notice to receive........................................................................ 7
4.4
Correctly support MT 900/MT 910 – Confirmation of Debit/Credit ....................................... 8
4.5
Correctly support MT 798 – Trade Finance ............................................................................ 8
4.6
Correctly support Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) ................................................................ 8
4.7
Correctly support ISO 20022 Payment Instructions over FileAct ........................................... 8
4.8
Correctly support ISO 20022 XML Cash Reporting messages over FileAct ............................. 8
4.9
Correctly support ISO 20022 XML EBAM messages over FileAct ........................................... 9
4.10
Support Common Global Implementation guidelines (CGI) ................................................... 9
4.11
Accept 3SKey personal digital signatures ............................................................................... 9
4.12
Accept 3SKey for authentication on web portal ..................................................................... 9
4.13
Staff certified “SWIFT for Corporates Specialist”.................................................................... 9
4.14
Support MyStandards for publication of standards specifications......................................... 9
The bank needs to be registered to MyStandards and publish their standards
specifications, schemas and documentation on MyStandards. ................................................ 9
4.15
Support MyStandards Readiness Portal for corporates ......................................................... 9
5.
Publication of bank readiness status ............................................................................................ 10
6.
Revision record ............................................................................................................................. 14
| Mandatory operational criteria
1
Introduction -
A solution by SWIFT for banks and their corporate clients
1.1 Purpose of the document
In response to market demand, and confirmed by the results of bank and corporate surveys, SWIFT
and the Corporate Advisory Group (CAG) have agreed to put a bank readiness certification
programme in place with the following main objectives:




To publish banks’ capabilities over SWIFT
To enable corporates to increase their bank reach globally using SWIFT
To promote the banks’ operational capabilities
To measure the readiness progress
A set of criteria will be used to certify the readiness status of the banks that offer SWIFT connectivity.
The result of this certification will be made available publicly in order to increase the awareness and to
fasten adoption.
The purpose of this document is to:
-
detail the criteria that will be used to assess the bank readiness status;
give insight into the way SWIFT will publish the status;
explain how to enrol in the programme, using the template declaration sheet.
1.2 Main principles
Banks communicating to corporates over SWIFT can obtain two levels of certification: “Entry” and
“Advanced,” depending on their service capabilities agreed on the following principles.
1. Operational and commercial readiness: Banks should demonstrate operational (e.g.
integration of applications, compliance with SWIFT standards) and commercial capabilities
(e.g. sales force should be knowledgeable, availability of collateral) readiness.
2. Two levels, “Entry” and “Advanced”: a minimum set of mandatory criteria will have to be
met in order to be considered “ready.” Additional capabilities for which the bank is ready may
be also published.
3. Any bank can publish its capabilities even if not certified. The non-certified banks can publish
their capabilities before fulfilling all the certification criteria. We allow certified banking groups
to add more granular information at country level when the Entry level is not reached.
4. Publication: the list of certified institutions will be published and promoted on swift.com. The
list is updated on a monthly basis.
5. Participation: enrolment in the programme is voluntary.
6. Granularity at a country level: Corporates want to know with which banks they can work, in
which countries and for which capabilities. Bank readiness per country is key for
corporates, not the operational routing to a specific BIC
| Mandatory operational criteria
2
7. Evolution: the readiness programme roadmap is reviewed on a yearly basis and the changes
brought to the programme are validated by the Corporate Advisory Group (CAG). SWIFT will
inform the certified banks about the changes and explain the impact on their readiness status.
The new roadmap will come into effect two months after the annual review. Therefore, banks
will need to comply with the new criteria within two months or will be removed from the list.
8. Validity: validity of the certification will be for each calendar year, unless a criteria needs to
be changed during the year. The certification of a bank will automatically be renewed if the
criteria of the approaching year are met by that bank.
9. Validation: the certification will be on a self-declarative basis, complemented by explicit
validation if deemed necessary (e.g. further to customer feedback). Banks will use the
proposed template to declare to SWIFT in which countries and for which services they want to
be listed as “ready.” Customer feedback will serve as confirmation or will trigger SWIFT to
verify the correctness.
10. Costs: participation in the programme is free of charges. Only when explicit validation is
needed, we will consider covering cost.
1.3 Entry Readiness Certification
1.3.1
Mandatory operational criteria
-
Context: SCORE (i.e. MA-CUG is out of scope)
-
Messaging: Support FIN and FileAct
-
Standardisation:
o
o
o
o
Able to receive MT 101
Able to send MT 940
Comply with MT-Implementation Guide for SCORE
Comply with FileAct-Implementation Guide for SCORE
-
Testing capability: mandatory
-
Operational documentation:
o
o
-
1.3.2
On-boarding guide, including implementation documentation (e.g. BIC(s), FileAct
parameters) and testing scripts
Contractual information (if an additional contract is required)
Support: availability of trained support resources (not necessarily certified staff)
Mandatory commercial criteria
-
Sales staff: identified, trained, first-line contact person
-
Commercial documentation:
o
o
Factsheet, FAQs, solution description, etc.
Hyperlink to bank’s webpage and/or contact detail
1.4 Advanced Readiness Certification
1.4.1
Mandatory operational criteria
-
Context: SCORE (i.e. MA-CUG is out of scope)
-
Messaging: Support FIN and FileAct
-
Standardisation:
| Mandatory operational criteria
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o
o
o
o
Able to receive MT 101
Able to send MT 940 and MT 942
Comply with MT-Implementation Guide for SCORE
Comply with FileAct-Implementation Guide for SCORE
-
Testing capability: mandatory
-
Operational documentation:
o
o
-
1.4.2
On-boarding guide, including implementation documentation (e.g. BIC(s), FileAct
parameters) and testing scripts
Contractual information (if an additional contract is required)
Support: availability of trained support resources (not necessarily certified staff)
Mandatory commercial criteria
-
Sales staff: identified, trained, first-line contact person
-
Commercial documentation:
o
o
Factsheet, FAQs, solution description, etc.
contact details ( email address/phone number)
1.5 Additional SWIFT capabilities
Certified institutions can publish their additional SWIFT capabilities from the following
principles:
-
1.5.1
Support FX confirmations (MT 300) and Fixed loan/deposit confirmations (MT 320)
Support Notifications to Receive (MT 210)
Support Credit and Debit confirmations (MT 900, MT 910)
Support Trade Finance instructions (MT 798)
Support Bank Payment Obligation (BPO)
Accept ISO 20022 XML payment instructions (pain.001, pain.002)
Send ISO 20022 XML reporting (camt.052, camt.053, camt.054)
Exchange ISO 20022 XML EBAM instructions (acmt)
Accept 3SKey personal digital signatures on payments and/or EBAM instructions
Accept 3SKey for authentication in web portals
Have staff certified “SWIFT for Corporates Specialist” as per the Using SWIFT –
Certification Programme
Additional information
Any additional information should be published on the banks’ own websites
2. Mandatory operational criteria
A bank is considered ready to offer S4C in a certain country if it complies in that country with all of the
below criteria.
2.1 Context: SCORE
The bank must make its offering available through SCORE (i.e. MA-CUG is not mandatory)
| Mandatory operational criteria
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2.2 Messaging
2.2.1
Correctly support a minimum set of MTs: MT101, MT940, MT 9421
To correctly support an MT message, the bank’s application must comply with the standards rules
as per the User Handbook (UHB) and with all the guidelines for this message as per the “SWIFT
for corporates - Standards MT Implementation Guide”
Be able to receive an MT 101, Request for Transfer message, used by a corporate to instruct
credit transfers from its account.
Be able to send an MT 940, Customer Statement message, to report end-of-day (or end-of–
period) on all booked entries on the account and the resulting balances.
Be able to send an MT 942, Interim Transaction Report, to report intraday on specific activity on
the account (only applicable for advanced readiness certification).
2.2.2
Comply with FileAct Implementation Guide for SCORE
The FileAct implementation should comply with the rules as set out in the “SWIFT for corporates FileAct Implementation Guide.” Being able to send and receive over FileAct is mandatory.
However, “readiness” does not imply that all services specified in the FileAct Implementation
Guide (e.g. electronic Bank Account Management, Trade Finance, etc.) have to be supported. If
the service is offered, the rules apply.
2.3 Testing capabilities
2.3.1
Test environment available
A bank must use (one of) its test BIC-8 to corporates for sending and receiving FIN for testing
purposes. The test BIC-8 ends with a “0.” The bank may use its generic test BIC-8, a dedicated
branch code for SCORE, a specific test BIC-8 for SCORE or even a dedicated test BIC-8 per
client. Similarly, a dedicated Distinguished Name (DN) must be available for identifying the test
service for FileAct files in test mode. The bank must be able to provide a description of the testing
facility to the corporate customer, containing information such as the BIC-8 and the DN to be
used, opening hours of the test environment and contact details.
2.3.2
Scripts for testing connections and applications
A bank must have a series of test scripts available for testing FIN and FileAct connection
availability and the ability to exchange messages according to the message set identified in
section 2.2.
The test scripts may, but do not have to, describe different business scenarios that need to be
covered during the on-boarding of a corporate customer. The goal of the standard test scripts is to
ensure both parties that the SWIFT for Corporates connection through SCORE is operational and
can be used to exchange instructions and reports (e.g. the correct exchange of the RMA
information might be sufficient).
Individual institutions are responsible for the integration of the information into their systems and
for the correctness of the message content. This is not part of the mandatory testing scripts.
1
MT942 is only mandatory for the advanced certification level.
| Mandatory operational criteria
5
2.4 Documentation
2.4.1
On boarding Guide
A bank must be able to provide (on-line or on-request): an “on-boarding guide” (or a set of
documents, technical specifications, information)
2.4.2 Contractual information
SCORE does not mandate any additional contract between parties in the context of the SWIFT
connectivity. If the bank requires a contract to be signed, it should be documented on a justified
request. If the contract is not documented, the bank is not considered “ready.”
2.5 Implementation support
The bank must have at least one identified individual to provide first-line customer support and can
state that the person is sufficiently trained to offer support on the bank’s S4C offering (e.g. attended
the SWIFT for Corporates course, a bank internal training course on SWIFT for corporates, has/have
documented procedures or equivalent).
3. Mandatory commercial criteria
A bank is considered ready to offer S4C in a certain country if it complies with that country with all of
the below criteria.
3.1 Sales staff
Identify at least one trained contact person for the country. The person(s) is (are) not necessarily
dedicated to that country. One person may cover several countries. The contact information is
available either on the bank’s website (not necessarily their name) or through the dedicated
relationship manager of the client/country. The bank must be willing to state that the person(s) is
(are) sufficiently trained to offer SWIFT support (e.g. attended the SWIFT for Corporates course,
a bank internal training course on SWIFT for corporates or equivalent).
3.2 Commercial documentation
3.2.1
Factsheet, FAQs, Solution description
Commercial documentation (e.g. a factsheet describing SWIFT for corporates in general and
SCORE in particular, an FAQ set around SWIFT for Corporates, a solution description and/or a
sales presentation deck) must be available from the bank's website and/or from the sales force on
justified request. The key is that SWIFT and SCORE are clearly described and positioned as a
communication option to reach the bank in the respective country.
3.2.1
Link to bank's SWIFT webpage or Contact detail
1) The bank must provide SWIFT with a hyperlink to a webpage on the bank’s website describing
their SWIFT for Corporates offering. This can be done in two ways:
| Mandatory commercial criteria
6
-
-
the hyperlink gives direct access to a dedicated webpage with the description of the
SWIFT offering and the contact details, potentially with a further hyperlink to more
detailed webpages/factsheets/documents;
the hyperlink leads to a generic webpage mentioning SWIFT amongst other solutions but
containing a link to a dedicated webpage/factsheet/document describing in detail the
offering as well as providing the contact details
The information must be publicly available (not restricted by a login). The hyperlink can be the
same for all countries in which the bank is ready.
The documentation should promote SWIFT as a channel to access your bank. To help you with
the content, we have listed some elements that can be part of your offering description:
-
Drivers and benefits for Corporates to use the bank’s solution via SWIFT (e.g. high
security, increased control, bank reach, global standards, cash visibility, cost reduction);
Services offered by the bank via the SWIFT channel (e.g. payments, reporting, FX
confirmations, Trade, EBAM, 3SKey);
Connectivity options (e.g. via FIN/FileAct, with SCORE/MA-CUG, type of messages/files,
standards, Member-Concentrator);
Integration and use of the solution;
Description of SWIFT, bank’s relationship with SWIFT, bank’s market presence.
2) Contact detail: the presence of a contact at the bank is mandatory. This contact must be either
an email address or a phone number, giving direct access to a person at the bank who is able to
handle the corporate’s request.
4. Additional SWIFT capabilities
4.1 Correctly support MT 300 – Foreign Exchange Confirmation
To correctly support an MT 300, the bank’s application must be able to send and receive Foreign
Exchange confirmation messages, in compliance with the standards rules as per the User
Handbook (UHB) and with all the guidelines for this message as per the “SWIFT for corporates Standards MT Implementation Guide.”
4.2 Correctly support MT 320 – Fixed Loan/Deposit Confirmation
To correctly support an MT 320, the bank’s application must be able to exchange Fixed
Loan/Deposit confirmations, in compliance with the standards rules as per the User Handbook
(UHB) and with all the guidelines for these messages as per the “SWIFT for corporates Standards MT Implementation Guide.”
4.3 Correctly support MT 210 – Notice to receive
To correctly support the Notice to Receive message, the bank’s application must be able to
receive an MT 210 in compliance with the standards rules as per the User Handbook (UHB) and
| Mandatory commercial criteria
7
with all the guidelines for this message as per the “SWIFT for corporates - Standards MT
Implementation Guide.”
4.4 Correctly support MT 900/MT 910 – Confirmation of Debit/Credit
To correctly support these additional cash management messages, the bank’s application must
be able to send MT 900, Debit Confirmation and MT 910, Credit Confirmation, in compliance with
the standards rules as per the User Handbook (UHB) and with all the guidelines for these
messages as per the “SWIFT for corporates - Standards MT Implementation Guide.”
4.5 Correctly support MT 798 – Trade Finance
To correctly support the MT 798, the bank’s application must be able to exchange trade finance
messages, in compliance with the standards rules as per the User Handbook (UHB) and with all
the guidelines for these messages as per the “SWIFT for corporates - Standards MT
Implementation Guide.”
4.6 Correctly support Bank Payment Obligation (BPO)
The bank needs to be registered to TSU in order to operate the bank payment obligation (BPO)
4.7 Correctly support ISO 20022 Payment Instructions over FileAct
To correctly support the ISO 20022 XML payment initiation messages on FileAct, they must be
implemented in line with the ISO 20022 “Message Definition Report” and the ISO 20022
“Message Usage Guide” and comply with the rules and guidelines in the “SWIFT for corporates FileAct Implementation Guide” and the “SWIFT for corporates – Standards MX Implementation
Guide,” which specifies the agreements of the Common Global Implementation group (CGI).
The relevant payment instructions are
-
pain.001.001.03 (Customer Credit Transfer Initiation)
pain.002.001.03 (Customer Payment Status Report)
Previous versions (pain.001.001.02 and pain.002.001.02) are still supported but we recommend
that you use the latest version.
4.8 Correctly support ISO 20022 XML Cash Reporting messages over
FileAct
To correctly support the ISO 20022 XML cash reporting messages on FileAct, they must be
implemented in line with the ISO 20022 “Message Definition Report” and comply with the rules
and guidelines in the “SWIFT for corporates - FileAct Implementation Guide” and the “SWIFT for
corporates – Standards MX Implementation Guide” which specifies the agreements of the
Common Global Implementation group (CGI).
The relevant cash reporting messages are
-
camt.052.001.02 (Bank To Customer Account Report)
camt.053.001.02 (Bank To Customer Statement)
camt.054.001.02 (Bank To Customer Debit Credit Notification)
| Mandatory commercial criteria
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Previous versions (camt.052.001.01, camt.053.001.01 and camt.054.001.02) are still supported,
but we recommend that you use the latest version.
4.9 Correctly support ISO 20022 XML EBAM messages over FileAct
To correctly support the ISO 20022 XML bank account management messages
(acmt.007.001.01 until acmt.021.001.01) on FileAct, they must be implemented in line with the
ISO 20022 “Message Definition Report” and the “SWIFT for corporates - FileAct Implementation
Guide.”
4.10 Support Common Global Implementation guidelines (CGI)
The bank should support the CGI recommendations and templates approved. These are
published on the CGI website (http://www.swift.com/corporates/cgi/resource_centre)
-
Credit Transfer/Payment Status Work Group (WG1)
Bank-to-Customer reporting Work Group (WG2)
Direct Debit Work Group (WG3)
Electronic Bank Account Management (eBAM) Work Group (WG4)
4.11 Accept 3SKey personal digital signatures
The bank is subscribing to the 3SKey service and accepts 3SKey signatures in SCORE
(mandatory) and proprietary channels (optional)
-
-
On payment instructions
And/or, on EBAM instructions
4.12 Accept 3SKey for authentication on web portal
The bank is subscribing to the 3SKey service and accepts 3SKey as a means for two-factor
authentication on its web banking portal(s).
4.13 Staff certified “SWIFT for Corporates Specialist”
Staff members within the bank that have passed the Using SWIFT – Certification Programme are
certified “Corporates Clients Advisor.The certified person(s) is (are) not necessarily located in the
country certified, but must still cover that country.
4.14 Support MyStandards for publication of standards specifications
The bank needs to be registered to MyStandards and publish their standards specifications,
schemas and documentation on MyStandards.
4.15 Support MyStandards Readiness Portal for corporates
The bank needs to register to MyStandards Readiness Portal and enable corporate clients to
test their standards implementation.
| Mandatory commercial criteria
9
5. Publication of bank readiness status
SWIFT publishes on the SWIFT for Corporates website: a detailed description of the criteria that are
used to assess a bank’s readiness and an overview of the readiness status of each bank per country.
The overview contains a link to the bank’s own webpage about SWIFT for corporates.
| Publication of bank readiness status
10
Application
SWIFT provides a Excel form template with a declaration stating the bank’s commitment to the
programme and a tick-list where all criteria are listed.
Declaration
BANK READINESS DECLARATION
The bank declares to be operationally and commercially ready to offer its services to its corporate
customers through SWIFT, in accordance with the criteria specified in the bank readiness document.
The enclosed spreadsheet confirms the readiness for the different services, and provides the necessary
information for each of the countries where the bank wants its readiness to be known.
The bank agrees that SWIFT publishes the information in the enclosed spreadsheet on its website and
warrants that the information is accurate and up-to-date. The bank commits to inform SWIFT about any
changes in the below information.
Date: ________________________________
Name: _______________________________
Function: _____________________________
Bank: ________________________________
Your SWIFT contact: ___________________
Signature: ____________________________
Readiness and capabilities
Only when the mandatory section for a certain country is completely green in the tick-list, the bank will
be published as ready for that country on the Website. The additional capabilities of the bank will in
that case also be shown.
| Publication of bank readiness status
11
Readiness and capabilities for non-certified SCORE banks:
We also allow the non-certified banks to gradually publish their capabilities before fulfilling all of the certification
criteria; this allows banking groups to add more granular information at country level, even though “Entry” level is
not reached.
Therefore, we will publish the capabilities in the “list of certified banks” document only:
In the column “certification”, the status will be reflected as N/A
| Publication of bank readiness status
12
Application
The bank that wants to participate in the certification programme should complete the form available
from the bank readiness webpage and send it back to swiftforcorporates@swift.com.
On receipt of the form, SWIFT checks that it is duly completed and that the bank meets the
mandatory requirements.
If the bank meets the requirements, SWIFT
-
confirms the readiness status to the bank;
informs the bank about the date when it will be published on the bank readiness
webpage;
provides the bank with the bank readiness label for the current year
A bank certified as ready may use the title “Bank Ready for Corporate Access 201x” and the
following label (applicable for the year)
For the purpose and for the duration of their participation in the programme, SWIFT grants the bank
the non-exclusive and non-transferable right, without the right to sublicense, to use the title and the
label of the programme. This licence becomes effective upon successful certification.
The certified bank may use the title and label to identify and advertise their status. Such
advertisements or public statements may not suggest or infer any appreciation or indication by SWIFT
as to the quality and the effectiveness of the bank.
If the bank does not meet the requirements, SWIFT notifies the applicant in writing.
| Publication of bank readiness status
13
6. Revision record
Modification
Location
Date
Update of mandatory criteria
“hyperlink to bank’s website”:
presence of a contact on the
bank’s webpage mandatory
Sections 1.3.2 and 3.2.2
January 2012
New section for application and
right to use the title and label
Section 7
February 2012
Update of ISO 20022 versions
of pain and camt
Section 4.6 and 4.7
May 2012
New optional commercial
criteria: Staff certified “SWIFT
for Corporates Specialist”
Section 1.3.4 and 5.1
November 2012
New “Entry” and “Advanced”
certification levels; introduced
additional SWIFT capabilities
as replacement of the Level 2
criteria
Complete document
February 2014
Complete document
July 2015
Add readiness capabilities for
non-certified SCORE banks.
Add the possibility to choose
either to provide with a Link to
bank's SWIFT webpage or with
a Contact detail.
| Revision record
14